Sidney Templeton
Sidney Templeton was the short-term fiancé of Maud Grimes before his untimely death in August 1999. Having moved into retirement complex Mayfield Court following the death of his wife, Sidney and Maud became close companions and quickly decided that they would live out the rest of their days together as husband and wife. Maud summoned former son-in-law Fred Elliott and his son Ashley Peacock to a "meeting" at 4 Coronation Street where she announced the couple's forthcoming wedding. Within a couple of days, Sidney was formally introduced to Fred, Ashley, Councillor Audrey Roberts and Ashley's fiancée Maxine Heavey at No.4 before the party headed off for celebratory drinks at the Rovers. With the news that the wedding was booked for Friday 13th August and arrangements had also been made for a honeymoon in the Far East, Fred's initial concerns of Maud slipping into senility were replaced by thoughts of Sidney being a gold-digger and just purely after Maud's money, so he devised a plan with the help of Audrey to probe the pensioner about his background and finances. As soon as Maud arrived at Audrey's salon for her hair appointment, Audrey quickly hurried away to meet up with Fred before driving to Mayfield Court and picking up Sidney. Ignoring the pensioner's complaints that he wasn't feeling too well, and oblivious to his discomfort in the back seat of the car, Fred continued on his planned drive out to the countryside - the realisation that Sidney had died only struck them when Fred stopped the car to check the map. With Sidney's corpse in the car, Fred and Audrey decided to take his body back to Mayfield Court and seat him on a bench outside, but their plan was thwarted when Maud arrived back at the main entrance of the building at exactly the same time in a taxi. Contemplating their next course of action, the couple were further panicked whle sat stationary in Freshco's car park, the vehicle drew the attention of a Policeman - who instantly recognised Councillor Roberts. However he was satisfied with the story that they were about to return the "tired-out" pensioner home after taking him out as part of Audrey's volunteer work for the council. Having eventually decided to take his body to Weatherfield General, Fred and Audrey returned to Mayfield Court and gently broke the news of Sidney's death to Maud. Initially angered at his interference, she thanked Fred for his concern and he comforted her as she wept. Sidney's funeral took place on Friday 13th August - the day the couple were due to be married. Only Betty Williams accompanied Maud as nobody else had enquired about the arrangements. A couple of weeks later, Maud was surprised to receive a solicitor's letter which confirmed that she had been left £10,000 in Sidney's will but was instinctively worried about what his family would think about her inheritance. In early September, Sidney's daughter and son-in-law Sandra and Keith Hesketh tracked Maud down and made out that they'd only been left pennies from her father's estate, while she had been awarded the lion's share. Despite Blanche Hunt's warnings that the couple were just trying to bully her, she agreed to relinquish her money. However, Maud quickly changed her mind when she read in the newspaper that Sidney's total estate was worth £60,000 and having realised that the Heskeths had tried to deceive her, she summoned them to the Rovers and called their bluff. In a fitting tribute, Maud decided to finance a trip to the Far East with her inheritance money and scatter Sidney's ashes from the famous Burma Railway bridge over the River Kwai in western Thailand, where many of his comrades lost their lives during World War II. Friend Emily Bishop accepted Maud's invitation to accompany her. Category:Coronation Street characters Category:1999 minor characters Category:1999 deaths Category:Residents of Mayfield Court